John and the Marines

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Hello :)

I've been curious about something for a while, and since I just posted a search for an SGA story over at sgastoryfinders for a story that's been bugging me, I thought, while I'm at it, I should get this one out of the way too, this being a perfect opportunity and all.

After all, you guys are always awesome at finding stories of a theme :)

Anyone who has read at least one of Keira Marcos' stories will have noticed the way John handles his marines. It's what endeared her stories forever to me. There's this one scene, for example that I find especially hilarious:


“What is the first rule of engagement on this base?”
“Don’t fuck with the Major General’s wife!”
John folded his arms and stared. “The Major General’s wife is upset.[...]And none of you are leaving this room until she’s satisfied.”
“Yes, Sir!”
“What is the second rule of engagement on this base?”
“Don’t fuck with Dr. McKay, Sir!”
“Huh, and why is that?”
“You fuck with McKay; you fuck with the Colonel!”
“That’s me.”
“Yes, Sir!”
“I’m really unhappy and what happens when I’m unhappy?”
“We get our asses kicked, Sir!”
“Soldiers, what is the universal truth?”
“Geeks will inherit the Earth!”
John smirked. “And that means?”
“We don’t fuck with the people who save our asses, Sir!”



Does anyone know any other stories with this sort of awesome interaction? It'd be even enough when the gist of this interaction here was laid out throughout the story. Know what I mean?

I think the Geeks and Goons series has similar scenes throughout, but other than that, none come to my mind. I'd really appreciate any and all help here. Preferably McKay/Sheppard, of course, but I really couldn't care less about pairings in this instance--gen, het, slash, anything will do.

(Our fandom being what it is, I find it hard to believe that there isn't a slew of such stories.)


Thank you very much in advance :)

Comments

[em_kellesvig]

If you're interested in the military and background personnel of Atlantis, there's no better place to go than The DMZ. miss_porcupine writes some of the best gen military stories about Atlantis in the fandom and her original characters seem like they should be a part of the show. While she focuses mainly on Lorne and the marines, you get to see Sheppard and his team through their eyes in many of her stories. She's very prolific and you can start at the beginning or may I suggest some favorites:

The Jenny Code
The Care and Feeding of a CO
Custer's Last Stand
Some Assembly Required

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll go check it out. :) Honestly, the reason I like reading military themed fanfics is because of the whole "no man left behind", "we are family", etc. type of mentality. It's this ideal that makes people respect military in real life so much, after all. And that combined with such hilarious exchange... well, it always makes me very happy to read stories like that.

So, again, thank you, I really appreciate your help :)

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to ask: I'm not wrong in assuming that there isn't any particular order to those stories, right? Since it seems to be ordered by date of writing?

[em_kellesvig]

No, there's no particular order, although her earlier stories do reflect the early seasons of the show. If you read them in the order written, you'll find later stories that go back and fill in the blanks in a very wonderful way (Some Assembly Required, for example, explains how Lorne put together his team, but you will meet them in many of the stories written before it.)

Also, you may want to check out her LJ for stories that haven't made it to the website yet. She does a lot of Five Things and Drabble Requests that are good fun to read. And her Friday Zen is not to be missed. :)

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Thanks again. I'll do just that. :)

[em_kellesvig]

You'll also enjoy:

Deck The Bulkheads (aka Christmas as done by batshit crazy marines)
Kalliergo The marines do KP.
The Legend of Smedley Duckler, the Fighting Quacker The marines adopt a duck.

(All of these are stories in which Sheppard is in turns baffled and amused by his marines.)

[csad21.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Yes, the titles alone will make one curious enough to read :)

And if I your icon can be interpreted as a summary of these stories, I know they'll be hilarious :)

Thank you, you're a real treasure :D

[em_kellesvig]

You're more than welcome but the real treasure is miss_porcupine. She's kept me entertained and enlightened for a number of years now. When it comes to the military, and Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, she really knows her stuff. :)

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Well, of course miss_porcupine is a treasure, that goes without saying. :) I've already started reading her stories, and I have to say, they sound like straight out of an SGC episode. -- It's because of this whole mentality depicted in the series I started watching SG1 in the first place (and kept on watching because of Daniel Jackson, but that's neither here nor there :) )

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Where is that snippet from?
I'd like to read the whole story.

[csad21.livejournal.com]

That's from When You Kiss Me, Part 1 of 4 (http://keiramarcos.com/2008/09/03/when-you-kiss-me-part-one/) which is part of Keira Marcos' series: What Might Have Been (http://keiramarcos.com/stargate-atlantis-fan-fiction/what-might-have-been-series-atlantis-au/).

Exchange like that is common in really almost *all* her SGA stories, especially throughout this series and the series The Sentinels of Atlantis (http://keiramarcos.com/stargate-atlantis-fan-fiction/the-sentinels-of-atlantis-atlantissentinel/).

[whizzy.livejournal.com]

(Our fandom being what it is, I find it hard to believe that there isn't a slew of such stories.)

Well, realistically, there's a certain level of respect Sheppard would never be able to earn from the Marines, not being in the Corps himself. And the sentiment goes both ways, if you take General Landry's grumbling that he's never liked Marines because they're such cocky sons of bitches. *grin*

I'm more surprised that there aren't a slew of fics where Sheppard is given absolute hell for being a screw-up, coddled, chair force prima donna. Bates... should have been just the warm-up, IMO.

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Well, the only reference I have on Marines being only the TV shows we see, I have no claim to even a remote expertise here. But if we assume those shows to reflect a modicum of truth, and if we take into account the show SG in itself, I never had the same thought.

Yes, Bates reservations should only be the start, in show and fanfic. I don't like him bashed in fanfic for his security reservations. But anyone who respects O'Neill can't *not* respect Sheppard. His absolute refusal to leave anyone behind, his actions during the Genii invasion and during the return, his suicide runs demonstrating he won't expect anything from his men he isn't willing to do himself -- all these are actions of O'Neill himself, and I can't imagine they wouldn't garner a certain respect from any and all soldiers. All these actions are the embodiment of the motto "Semper Fi", and I can't imagine people believing in that motto wouldn't respect the hell out of anyone who lives it out.

You're right though, about the dislike between the branches of the armed forces. That's probably something universal all over the world, huh? :) Besides, Landry doesn't like too many people, I think, least of all O'Neill.

[mikes-grrl.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to jump into this as an Air Force brat: my father often "trash talked" the Army and the Navy (I wish I could remember some of his jokes) but in serious conversations, he always treated them with the utmost respect and honor.

I think the branches enjoy their competition, and yes at a high ranking level the animosity can become severe (mostly due to budget issues, according to what I remember my father talking about - he was a Lt. Col. himself) but I think any "regular soldier" - Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force - would rather cut their arm off then disrespect their commanding officer just because of the branch they come from. I love miss_porcupine's take on it for that reason: the Marines are constantly giving John shit about being USAF, but they never outright disrespect him for that reason alone. I don't think they could. /2 cents

[csad21.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought. I myself respect most military (with the exception of that of a few select countries) above and beyond anything else.

So you'd agree with me about John having earned the Marines' respect, right? Through his simple living out of "Semper Fi"?

Because a few conversations I had with men from the Italian and Turkish army I met during vacations in those countries led me to believe that they place a very high value on loyalty and honor, and that while they respect and obey all of their commanding officers, an officer like I described John to be above, one who lives it out, would earn their unending admiration and that they'd gladly die for a man like that.

I don't know how true that is--they could have been exaggerating, after all, though I don't think so--or even how relevant it is to the US military, but I always thought these two countries' military morals to be similar to that of the USA.

I think the disrespect thing gets too exaggerated sometimes by TV for effect.

In any case, thank you for jumping in here--always nice to get infor from the source or nearest thing to it, after all. :)

[mjulok.livejournal.com]

These are the kind of stories I like to read in the sga fandom as well. I'll recommend a few I think suit your request (and by the way miss_porcupine's delicious account (http://delicious.com/dmzfic) has all of her fic sorted in season order (the earlier ones anyway))

Coulda, shoulda, woulda (http://community.livejournal.com/sga_flashfic/824414.html) by liketheriverrun  is more of a Marine's gaining respect of his CO (Gen, T)

Lessons in humility (http://community.livejournal.com/stargate_fanfic/278565.html#cutid1)by jadetate  is about the new arrivals not respecting the scientists (Gen, PG-13)

Then there's the 5 things prompt Five times John’s men were proud to have him as a CO (http://community.livejournal.com/sg1_five_things/176332.html) by different authors (Gen, Slash)

And The New Guys (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3432173/1/) by T'Pring where John take the new guys for a very interesting introduction (Gen, T)

Or something like it  (http://semivowel.livejournal.com/4505.html) by  semivowel has a scene in which John hands one of his marines his ass.... (albeit under the influence of a truth serum) (McShep, R)

Five things a marine needs to know about John Sheppard (http://x-erikah-x.livejournal.com/126105.html) is a great 5 things fic by x_erikah_x (Gen, PG-13)

I hope this is the kind of fic you are looking for... just realised they're more about the marines respecting Sheppard and not really what you wanted.

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Well, of course, ideally I'm looking for stories where they already do respect Sheppard and he only has to make it clear to them that they should respect the geeks too if they're clever, or fanfics where someone screws up and Sheppard reminds all of them just why that's a bad idea--as it was the case in that excerpt.

But hey, don't worry, these too are the kinds of stories I was looking for. I simply like the intermilitary interaction. Especially if it causes a conversation like the one in the excerpt.

So, thank you very much for these links, you have no idea how much I appreciate it. Especially the "Five times John’s men were proud to have him as a CO" link. :) (I never would have found it by myself, as I hadn't known about that community.)

[angellec.livejournal.com]

There is one on wraithbait that i can't name but it involves DADT being repealed and Jack and Daniel being on Atlantis. There is a scene where John gathers the Marines and tells them if they act homphobic he willspace them. When Daniel asks how,John tells him many pegasus gates are spacegates and he prefers one that orbits a gas giant. It also involves a list of gay soldiers made up by the women and a gay bashing on Paul Davis's little brother. It's an evil Keller fic.

[csad21.livejournal.com]

That's one of the Keira Marcos' stories I was talking about. All of her stories are like that.

Human Nature (http://keiramarcos.com/2010/02/13/human-nature/) by Keira Marcos.

I used to go back to her stories whenever I wanted to read something like that. It's why I made this search -- to have more fanfics of that nature to read.

[angellec.livejournal.com]

Thank you that's been driving me nuts.

[hickman1937.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this fits but, Only the Journey Matters (http://ga-unicorn.livejournal.com/16949.html?view=179253#t179253) by ga_unicorn.

[csad21.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link, I appreciate it. That looks like an interesting story. :)